Road impediment



May 29, 1928.

T. O. M CLU RE ROAD IMPEDIMENT Filed Sept. 23, 1926 1 7. Q fl zmzzf.

INVENTOR ATTORNEY combination In actual practice, however, it is verylikely Patented May 29, 1928.

PATENT OFFICE.

THOMAS O. MOGLURE, 0F PIEDMONT, CALIFORNIA.

ROAD IMPEDIMENT.

Application filed September 23, 1926. Serial no. 137,348.

My invention relates to improvements in road impediments, and itconsists in the construction, and arrangement, hereinafter described andclaimed.

An object of my invention is to provide a road impediment which isadapted to be placed near a street intersection, a railroad crossing, orany other place where it is desired to make it imperative that thedriver of the automobile 'or other vehicle slow up before proceedingfurther.

A further object of my invention is to provide a device of the typedescribed, which consists in anumber of undulations in the,

surface of the road, these undulations being of any desired length,depth, or shape, that the particular problem requires.

Other objects and advantages will appear in the following specification,and the novel features of this invention will be particularly pointedout in the appended claims.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, forming a partof this application, in wh1ch Figure 1 is a schematic view of the deviceas used in connection with a railroad crossing, and

Fi re 2 is a schematic view of the road bed, aving convolutions of adifferent shape than those shown in Figure 1.

In carrying out my invention, I make use of a road bed 1 wh1ch may beconstructed of any material desired, such as any of the standardmaterials as macadam, as halt, brick, dirt, etc. In Figure 1, I have sown the road 1 as intersecting a railroad track 2. The device is notonly adaptable for railroad crossings, but may be employed wherever itis desired to make it impossible for traflic to proceed unless it slowsdown to the desiredextent. It may, therefore, be desired to use thedevice at a street intersection, at a sharp curve in the road, or at apoint in the road that passes by a hospital, school house, where it isnecessary that vehicles move at a relatively slow speed.

In F i re 1,'I show the undulations 3 as being isposed a predetermineddistance from the railroad track 2. It is obvious that the undulationsmay extend right up to the track, if desired, without departing from thespirit and scope of my invention.

that the undulations will be placed a sufficient distance away from thetrack to permit the vehicle to come to a dead stop at an nistants noticedue to the slow speed of the vehicle.

Theconvolutions 3, are shown as startin with a very slight Wave inFigure 1 an then gradually increasing in intensity until the most abruptwaves are reached just prior to the smooth stretch of road bed 4. Asheretofore stated, the length of the stretch of smooth road 4 and thearticular shaping of the undulations 3 will e determined for eachparticular case.

From the foregoing description of the various parts of the device, theoperation thereof may be readily understood. The principal object of theinvention is to provide some sort of an impediment in the road whichwill make it imperative that the driver slow up his car in order toprevent any undue jolting. Figure 1 shows this impediment as consistingof a number of un-- dulations, the waves of which gradually increase inintensity, thus giving the driver am le warning, even though heisdriving at nig t and is unable to see the impediment.

In Figure 2, I have shown a slightly modified form of the device. Theline 10 extends at right angles to the sides of the road 11 and clearlyshows how the undulations 12 are high at one side of the road, whiledirectly across the road is a low spot. A vehicle, in passin over thisimpediment, will be given aslig t rocking motion, this motion beingaugmented as the speed of the car is increased.

It is obvious that various other shapes of impediments may be employedand broadly accomplish the same result as the particular constructionsshown in Figures 1 and 2. I, therefore, consider any such modificationsor adaptations my own, which are covered by the scope of the claims. Thedevice-is extremely simple in construction and provides a novelexpedient for cutting down the large number of accidents occurring atrail road crossings, street intersections, and sharp curves in the road.

I claim:

1. A road having an impediment therein, said impediment consisting of asuccession of Waves extending entirely across the width of the road, thewave length thereof gradually decreasing thus providing a warning videdwith a plurality of waves of gradually decreasing wave lengths forcausing a gradually increasing rocking motion to be imparted to thevehicle as it passes thereover, thereby compelling the driver thereof toreduce the speed in order to compensate for said increased rockingmotion.

3. A road having an impediment thereon, said impediment consisting of asuccession 10 of waves of gradually decreasing wave lengths, said wavesto have an e ual height.

4. A road having a portion ereof constructed' with a-plurality of wavesof gradua-lly decreasing wave lengths and of equal height for causing agradually increasing roc hicle as it passes thereover thereby compellingthe driver to reduce the speed in order to compensate for said increasedrocking motion.

In testimony whereof I do hereby aflix my signature.

THOMAS O. MCCLURE.

ng motion to be imparted to the ve-

